Manolo's Shoe Blog

Manolo the Columnist: Air Marcella Flat Sandal from Cole Haan

2012-06-01T15:21:39Z

Manolo says, here is the Manolo’s latest column for the Express of the Washington Post.

Dear Manolo,

My husband and I are ditching our DC Jobs, packing up our lives, and taking a year off to travel through Southeast Asia. It will be hot, probably messy, and we’ll be on our feet all day. And I will die if I am forced to wear Keens, Chacos, or other clunky sport utility sandal out of a lack of options that don’t sacrifice form for features. Are there cute, supportive, dare-I-dream even gladiator-y sandals for the REI-phobe packing heels in her backpack?

Kat

Manolo says, frankly, the Manolo does not fully understand the allure of the backpack travel.

“But, Manolo,” say the friends of the Manolo, “it is romantic and liberating. You can go where you want, when you want.”

To which the Manolo replies, “Yes, when you backpack you are free to travel like the wind, weighed down by nothing more than the ninety pounds of dirty laundry you are carrying on your back.”

Oh, how the Manolo wishes for the return of the civilized travel, when the people of gentle breeding were able to pack up several dozen changes of clothing, top hats, kid gloves, patent leather shoes, and spats into the steamer trunk.

Later, when we reached our destination, we would “rough it” by changing into our safari clothes while the native bearers carried the trunks to our first campsite, where the gin and tonics would be awaiting our arrival.

Now, instead of travelling like civilized peoples in barbarian lands, we travel like barbarians in civilized places.

Here is the Cole Haan Air Marcella Flat Sandal in black, the gladiator sandal with the comfort in mind.

Young Billionaires, Then and Now

2012-06-01T05:13:08Z

Then: The Young Howard Hughes…

Ayyyy! So dashing!

Now: The Young Mark Zuckerberg…

Manolo says, it is the shower shoes that really bring the ensemble together.

Whose Shoes Wednesday… The Answer!

2012-06-01T05:10:25Z

Manolo asked, whose shoes?

Manolo answers, it is the Kim Novak!

Congratulations to the Manolo’s internet friend, the Lanzarote del Lago, who was the first to correctly identify this week’s celebrity of notableness.

Whose Shoes Wednesday

2012-05-30T15:12:33Z

Manolo asks, whose shoes?

Sergio Rossi Platforms for the Day after the Memorial Day

2012-05-29T15:47:37Z

Manolo says, it is the day after Memorial Day and you are back at your desk, complaining to yourself about the system that requires you to be invisibly chained to your means of production.

Yes, you are fairly compensated for your mighty efforts on behalf of InEmTechCoCom, Inc, but still, humans were not meant to spend so much time engaged in concentrated labor.

Hard work was meant to be seasonal, during the planting and the harvesting, when we worked long hours in the fields. The rest of the time we should be free to collect pretty rocks from the mill stream, chase the fireflies, and swap tall tales with the old men of the village. We are creatures made for wholesome work and honest leisure, not beasts of burden to be lured with the paycheck carrot and whipped with the performance report stick.

On the upside, the modern economy allows us, if we are lucky, to purchase beautiful and impractical shoes such as these…

Sergio Rossi Platform Sandals, perfect for the summer months.

The Manolo predicts, in the future, when the robots have taken over, we will all be free to enjoy life without labor….or, perhaps, be exterminated like vermin. It is 50/50.

Manolo the Columnist: Gladiator Maine from DSquared2

2012-05-25T16:58:39Z

Manolo says, here is the Manolo’s latest column for the Express of the Washington Post.

Dear Manolo,

At the end of June I’m going to Dubai for a business conference. For the meetings, I’m going to be in strict business attire, but afterwards, I plan on dressing up and hitting the malls and the restaurants. What I need is a pair of sandals that will look great for both shopping and dining out afterwards.

Andrea

Manolo says, what could be better than Dubai in the summer? Where the outside temperature at noon is 615 degrees, Celsius!

Ah, but inside the Dolce-Gabbana-Prada-Gucci-Tiffany mega store, where the richy-rich oil sheikhs pay for their purchases with suitcases of gold bullion, the air is conditioned down to the very lovely 72 degrees, American.

Indeed, who else but the oil sheikhs would build something in the desert as crazy-beautiful as the Ski Dubai, the giant indoor ski resort in the Mall of the Emirates, where the temperature is always just below freezing, and the bunny hill beckons.

Of the course, one must celebrate such ostentatious defiance of Mother Nature with beautiful shoes, although, buying the new shoes to go to Dubai is like building the indoor ski resort in Siberia. The shoe shopping in Dubai is perhaps the best in the world. Everything is available from the most humble sandals, through the best Louboutins, Zanottis, and Blahniks, and even the bespoke shoes can be ordered.

However, if you must have the shoes before you go, the Manolo suggests this DSquared2 platform sandal, the Gladiator Maine in the brick color.

Whose Shoes Wednesday…The Answer!

2012-05-25T12:26:40Z

Manolo asked, whose shoes?

Manolo answers, it is the Edie Falco!

This week, none of the Manolo’s internet friends was able to correctly identify the Showtime celebrity of note.

Whose Shoes Wednesday

2012-05-23T16:51:36Z

Manolo asks, whose shoes?

Manolo the Columnist: Gwyneth from Sam Edelman

2012-05-18T13:20:06Z

Manolo says, here is the Manolo’s latest column for the Express of the Washington Post.

Dear Manolo,

I’ve been invited to spend Memorial Day Weekend with my boyfriend’s family
in the Hamptons. The trouble is, I’m a poor working girl. Can you please
recommend some summery flat sandals that will look good enough to impress
these people without bankrupting me?

Molly

Manolo says, as always, the Manolo suggests saving your monies and buying the most super fantastic shoes one can afford, for such purchases will give the most satisfaction over the long term, in comfort, beauty, and admiration from those who know quality when they see it.

But the Manolo also sympathizes with the poor girls, who must work the double shifts at their dismal dreary jobs in the new media sweatshops, posting on the corporate blogs and twittering and facebooking all day long for the Man.

Indeed, the Manolo knows exactly what it is like to be poor, so poor that you must fashion your own super fantastic, impress-the-rich-people-in-the-Hamptons sandals out of strangely colored shells and tangled fishing line you have collected near the wastewater outlet pipe that discharges near the pier under which you are sleeping.

And so he would recommend that you Gwyneth from the Sam Edelman as being the moderately priced, cutely blingish flat sandals that will keep the people of the Hamptons moderately appeased.

Whose Shoes Wednesday…The Answer!

2012-05-17T18:19:13Z

Manolo asked, whose shoes?

Manolo answers, it is the Marlene Dietrich!

Congratulations to the Manolo’s internet friend, kjuliek, who was the first to correctly identify this week’s old-timey celebrity of note.